Hiiii, if it's not too much, can you describe the biggest differences between the live action characters and the novel characters in MDZS? They are a lot, so I will love even the difference between few of them! I haven't seen the live action and I don't know if I will ever, but I am curious, considering all the meta. Anyway, thank you in general, even if you don't answer!
Hello anon! This has been in the inbox forever because there are soooo many ways to answer this! However, let me be transparent that I've watched maybe like 1/10 of CQL. Among other obstacles, I simply do not care that much about Lan Wangji and he's always there (even though Wang Yibo is giving it his all... it's not his fault I'm a hater...). Chewing through a book with Ms. Mxtx's commentary was just more enjoyable to me, and even then, to be honest, I still liked SVSSS better. (I just love Shen Yuan/Shen Qingqiu so much. That dude is wild.)
Still, the live action definitely affected how I understood certain characters (...primarily Nie Huaisang) and made me interested in relationships that I didn't pay any attention to in the novel. (I freely admit that the nieyao brainrot is 100% CQL's fault.) Also I found Wang Zhuocheng's Jiang Cheng very cute and loveable. It definitely contributed to my Jiang Cheng Brain Disease.
LISTEN. HE HAS BIG SAD EYES AND THE MEANEST SNEER AND HE MIGHT BURST INTO TEARS AT ANY TIME. HE IS A BABY. A baby who could kill you with his terrifying lightning whip! But a baby nonetheless, to me.
So if you want someone with a real and knowledgeable opinion on the live action, I'm probably not the right person for that! However, here's one difference that changed a bunch of stuff about the characters that I found compelling in the novel: the second flautist.
CQL adds Su She as a second flautist doing unorthodox cultivation in a couple of different places, including at Qiongqi Path, where he seizes control of Wen Ning and is therefore responsible for Jin Zixuan's death. Removing the responsibility for Jin Zixuan's death from Wei Wuxian creates a bunch of cascading character and relationship implications that I don't love.
Firstly, all of the people who cautioned Wei Wuxian against his unorthodox cultivation are now... wrong. If he never lost control, then actually his assessment that he could maintain control wasn't overconfidence, it was just true, and he was persecuted because the Jin needed a scapegoat and wanted the Yin Tiger Tally, not because his cultivation path actually involved significant risks and drawbacks. (To be fair, the Jins actively exploited those drawbacks, the public perception of his cultivation, and Wei Wuxian's failure to manage his reputation. But it matters whether the risks exist or are just made up.)
Secondly, removing his responsibility for Jin Zixuan's death transforms both Wei Wuxian's character and how we understand his relationships with Jiang Yanli, Jiang Cheng, and Jin Ling. Because, in the novel, he kills Jin Zixuan under duress but also after a lifetime of conflict with him. Like, he hates the dude, he doesn't think he's worthy of Jiang Yanli, and he's not willing to examine his hatred and resentment even though Jiang Yanli loves Jin Zixuan and wants to marry him, even after she marries him and has a child with him. (I would argue that a lot of the resentment is because of the eventual marriage; by marrying Jiang Yanli, Jin Zixuan becomes legally recognized family to the Jiang siblings, while Wei Wuxian's relationship with them has no social recognition; I think Wei Wuxian is deeply threatened by that but can't articulate it.) It's a huge failure! Like, dude, you loved someone and you killed that person's beloved spouse. That points to a certain degree of repressed jealousy, possessiveness, longing, arrogance, the list goes on... I am so compelled by that conflict, and the adaptation just erases it.
This also affects how we read Jin Ling's relationship with Wei Wuxian. In one scenario, a teenage Jin Ling is (eventually, minus one little stab) ending the cycle of violence by not seeking vengeance for his father's murder. In the other, it was actually someone associated with Jin Ling's paternal family that killed his father, and he's maybe just... coming to terms with that? One of these scenarios is so much richer and more interesting.
How it affects the relationship between Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian is a little more subtle. It locates the responsibility for a lot of the harm done to the Jiang siblings with the Jin sect, not with Wei Wuxian, removing some of Wei Wuxian's culpability in the devolution of his relationship with Jiang Cheng. If Wei Wuxian isn't guilty of wronging the Jiang family (and instead is also a victim of the Jin sect), then all of Jiang Cheng's rage and betrayal was misdirected. They were both tricked. In some ways, maybe that's easier to patch up after canon? (I wonder if this is why many CQL yunmeng shuangjie reconciliation fics have Jiang Cheng apologize to Wei Wuxian, but not the other way around?) But it's so much less interesting to me!
Finally, it removes Wei Wuxian's tragic flaw! Dude is legitimately a genius but he's got hubris coming out of his ears and it fucks him up big time! This is classic stuff. Please stop flattening my boy!!
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The BRCU Timelines - A Summary of the Core Overarching Plotline
Pre-BtH Timeline - "Old/Original Timline"
The British Timeline
The Elmer Revolution Timeline
Post-BtH Timeline - "New/Current Timeline"
(Coloured-coded in rainbow order to help remember the timeline occurring order; as in red comes before green, and so does the corresponding timelines, hope this helps!)
1920s - Donna Phitts is born
1971 - Bryce Tankthrust and Bobby Worst are born
2011 - Sebastian Hernandez is born
2018 - Sebastian Hernandez gets a gang sign tattooed on his left arm by the Eldest Elmer in order to continue hiding in his tattoo shop after running away from Helen Brownstein at the beach.
2033 - Blame (Sebastian Hernandez) buys a time machine off of Craigslist in order to travel back in time and tell his past self to change a gang sign tattoo he got as a seven year old. He loses the time machine upon arrival at the beach and after exchanging ownership several times the time machine ends up in the possession of Lord & Lady Mingeworthy, who travel back in time to the year 1865. In 1865, the Mingeworthies are forced to give the time machine to Lucious Cowpussy and Vivian Delongprix, trapping them in 1865. Lucious and Vivian use the time machine to return to 2018, where after exchanging further bouts of ownership returns to Blame, who finally tells his seven year old self to not get the gang sign. Thinking his plan has been a success, Blame returns to 2033 only to find that the displacement of the Mingeworthies from 2018 to 1865 has created a new timeline due to their interferance with historical events; the British timeline.
2033, 1865, 2018 - Blame goes on a fetch-quest through time and space that eventually prevents the Mingeworthies from possessing the time machine in the first place, whilst still allowing the Eldest Elmer (then, known as Tattoo Shop Elmer) to temporarily access the time machine and scheme with Hitler to create the Elmer Revolution timeline.
2018 - The original (non-main character) Blame who travelled back to 2018 to get his tattoo changed decides to hand over his time machine, and stay in 2018. This prompts the events of Stuff & Sam several months later.
2018/2019 - Stuff & Sam takes place in what is technically The Elmer Revolution timeline. However, The Elmer Revolution is not triggered until 15 years later in 2033 when Blame arrives back, allowing the Eldest Elmer to enact his nuke.
1942 - The new timeline is created after the death of Elmer in 1942. Thanks to "lime-a-dozen," whose reveal name is revealed to be Donna Phitts, Blame's life is spared after a near-fatal injury and he is subsequently given a new identity as a man named George. George remembers nothing of his past identity and goes on to live with severe cognitive impairment for the rest of his life.
1971 - Bryce Tankthrust and Bobby Worst were born.
1981 - Bryce Tankthrust meets and falls in love with Bobby Worst at school. Not wanting to be upstaged by another couple at school, she cuts out her heart as a love devotion to him. Abraham Lincoln and Hitler get into fight after being transported foward in time which prompts the revelation of Hitler being Bobby's grandfather. While this heart is later sewn back into her chest by her mortician neighbour, it's given a low chance of long-term viability and becomes a ticking time bomb.
1981 - Bobby Worst is thrown into an orphanage by Bryce's mother after being abandoned by his father, Coach Best, upon the publicisation that Bobby & Coach Best are direct descendants of Adolf Hitler.
1991 - Tammy Tankthrust is arrested and imprisoned for her crimes after calling her victim ugly.
1991 - Finally liberated from her mother, Bryce Tankthrust begins working at CallCo Phones after her involvement in the accidental death of her boyfriend, Donovan, who previously worked there.
1991 - Bryce Tankthrust reunites with Bobby Worst, who is working as an assistant for her boss's wife.
1991 - Bryce's heart transplant finally fails, and her colleague Gloria, a cellphone technician with a secret passion for cardiology, offers to test out a prototype robotic heart as a replacement on her.
1991 - Bryce Tankthrust convinces Gloria to build a robotic replica of her ex-boyfriend, Donovan, in order to temporarily carry out the Double Diva Diversion scheme and make some quick money before promising herself to stay on a legitimate money making career path.
1991 - Donovan murders a man while attempting to help Bryce with a scheme, leading another robot to identify him as dangerous and kill him. Bryce gives him her robotic heart to resurrect him, and leaves him cardiology books to perform a heart transplant on her using the stolen heart of the man Donovan initially killed.
1991 - After so much shit goes down at work, Bryce Tankthrust decides to give in and pursue a life of crime with the help of her robotic assistant Donovan.
2016 - A Day At The Park takes place.
2016 - Queen Elizabeth II ends her deal with Bryce Tankthrust. Previously, Bryce was paying her five million dollars a month to recieve orphan hearts to fulfil her need to frequent heart transplants. This results in a personal feud, prompting Bryce Tankthrust to run for President.
2016 - Adrian Gelson assaults Queen Elizabeth II, leaving her permanently disfigured, at a national park and steals her ring in order to use it to propose to his girlfriend, Everly Darling. After getting married, Adrian & Everly move to Clamville under the alter egos of Mr. & Mrs. Gallager to settle down and start a normal life. However, they are tracked down by a bounty hunter of Queen Elizabeth II and coerced into returning the ring. After murdering the bounty hunter and attempting to escape Clamville, they're kidnapped by Mrs. Frontbottom, the Queen's head of security, and forced to take on the British alter egos of Lord & Lady Mingeworthy while carrying out a mission to obtain the ring left in Clamville and return it to her majesty. However, despite successfully completing this mission, they are forced into keeping the British alter egos and carrying out a life of servitude to the Queen in Clamville as an alternative to death.
November 4th 2016 - Bryce Tankthrust is Elected President.
2020 - Bryce Tankthrust stages the incarceration and escape of horny terrorist Bobby Worst.
November 4th 2020 - Bryce Tankthrust loses the presidential election.
2021 - Footage of Bryce Tankthrust staging the incarceration and escape of Bobby Worst is leaked to the public, which severely damages Bryce's reputation, and businesses. As a consequence, she loses her entire fortune and is left broke.
2021 - Bobby Worst is kidnapped by the Mingeworthies at the request of Queen Elizabeth II as an attack against Bryce Tankthrust.
2021 - Mrs. Frontbottom is revealed to be alive and overthrows Queen Elizabeth II as Queen of the UK.
2021 - Bryce Tankthrust and her assistant Donovan team up with the Mingeworthies to rescue Bobby Worst.
2021 - Bryce Tankthrust gets exonerated, restoring her reputation anf fortune, and her and Bobby Worst get married. Adrian & Everly decide to continue living life as the Mingeworthies, despite being freed from their contract
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I Love Hating Lady Anabella
Spoilers for FF16 under the cut.
She's just the worst. She fully buys into the pressures of her role in preserving the Phoenix in the ducal bloodline. She's a horrible wife and mother, seeing her family members as nothing but tools for her own ambitions. She's a horrible ruler, oppressing her own people out of bigoted hatred. She's entirely selfish. She doesn't really have any redeeming qualities.
Her choices and actions drive so much of the plot and character interactions, through her alliances and manipulations and horrific orders, until it all finally comes crashing down around her.
She's fascinating and terrible; she's an excellent human villain in a world of magic, monsters, and gods.
For all Ultima's scheming, he can just leave Anabella unaware to do as she likes and it works perfectly to forward his own goals through her sheer levels of ambitious petty. He's so alien with such ancient, high-level plans, it's hard to relate; he's simply a monstrous god.
But Anabella? We can too often relate, understanding how and why she turned out the way she did, and even understanding the conflicted feelings she elicits in the protagonists, who are all in some way her children (by blood, by marriage, by fostering), even after all her cruelty to them and those they care about.
And sometimes one just needs that catharisis of enjoying an unapologetically awful antagonist, especially when they're finally outmaneuvered and taken off the board--along with the angst that it really doesn't give any comfort or closure to the remaining members of the family she herself shattered.
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